Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a sheet containing device, a sheet feeder including the sheet containing device, and an image forming apparatus including the sheet containing device.
Related Art
Various types of electrophotographic image forming apparatus are known to include a sheet conveying device or a sheet feeder to convey a sheet one by one from a sheet containing device that accommodates multiple sheets therein to an image forming apparatus or to an image forming device.
As an example, a sheet containing device that includes a first sheet container and a second sheet container. The first sheet container accommodates multiple sheets therein to be fed to a sheet feeding device. The second sheet container is disposed upstream from the first sheet container in a sheet feeding direction and includes multiple sheets. The sheet containing device further includes a sheet transfer unit. When it is detected that there is no sheet left in the first sheet container, multiple sheets contained in the second sheet container are transferred altogether to the sheet transfer unit. The first sheet container includes a pair of side fences and a moving device. Both fences of the pair of side fences are disposed facing each other with a sheet interposed therebetween in a sheet width direction. The pair of side fences functions as a regulator to regulate a position in the sheet width direction of the sheet. The moving device moves the pair of side fences in the sheet width direction.
In a case in which a bundle of sheets accommodated in the second sheet container is transferred to the first sheet container, a motor of the moving device is driven to move the pair of side fences automatically from a regulating position, where a position of the sheet in the sheet width direction is regulated, to a retreating position. Then, when a sensor detects that the pair of side fences has arrived the retreating position, the sheet transfer unit is driven to transfer the bundle of sheets loaded on the second sheet container to the first sheet container. After the bundle of sheets has been transferred to the first sheet container, the motor of the moving device is driven to move the pair of side fences from the retreating position to the regulating position automatically.